Identity
by JTR01
Summary: Pete Ross, the Mall-Crawling Spider-Boy, thinks about his life and his inability to have anything normal.


**Just my attempt to provide character depth to Spider-Boy, who I feel could have been used better in the two issues he appeared in instead of simply being 90s Superboy with a spider theme. Which I know is unfair since at the time Superboy hadn't been developed to resemble the version we know, but you would think they would have given him more qualities from Peter Parker or Ben Reilly. I don't own Amalgam Comics.**

He knew he shouldn't be here. It would be unfair, it would be selfish to walk up to them and tell them who he was. Yet even with those thoughts, it still took Pete all his willpower not to jump off the roof he was hiding on and greet the couple.

Sometimes Pete hates how good a liar he was. He didn't mean to be so good at it, all he ever did was make jokes and talk about pop culture, yet somehow he had convinced everyone that he was fine. That he was nothing more than an impulsive and glory loving teenager, with a life filled with games and fun, who made up songs about himself and whose only redeeming quality was his decision to help people. He knew some of the other heroes saw past his jokes and focused on the aspects most similar to them, but even they fail to see what he was hiding.

Because he wasn't a teenager. He may look like he is sixteen, but he is only four years old. He lost the only family he had when he was two, and Cadmus was kind enough to provide him a place to live. Before he lost his uncle Gen he never knew such evil existed in the world, it had been weird and confusing, but it had always felt wonderful. He never cared about his origin, or the abilities that he would one day realize set him apart from others, or the rush of memories and feelings he knew weren't his own. He had his uncle, so he was happy.

After his uncle was killed, Pete became Spider-Boy. His his pain under an exaggeration of his own persona, at times succeeding in distracting himself before he stood still too long and the pain came back to him. He would then try to distract himself again, from battling lizard monsters and adventures to a subatomic planet to catching muggers and entertaining children, hosting a show and becoming a celebrity. While he did help people because he cared, it was also driven by a desire to hide from what happened.

Eventually however he found that even that wasn't enough. He still had too much time to be still and think, so he got his hands on a matter-transformer and built a civilian life for himself. When he was with his uncle he was home schooled and made a point of keeping him largely away from Cadmus so he could have as much of a normal life as he possibly could. With his intellect and Cadmus tech, proving Pete Ross the means to get a job as a photographer was easy and he somehow was able to keep it a secret from Cadmus. Especially since he just needed to take flattering pictures about himself, which was incredibly easy to do since he didn't have a bad side. And not only that, but as a photographer he had a normal life and found himself slipping into a different persona. One that was a little more meek and shy, especially around the ladies, and one that gave him problems he's never had deal with before, like having a deadline.

But somehow living three lives wasn't enough to stop his mind drifting. And he couldn't think of a way to distract himself anymore, so he did the one thing he swore to himself he wouldn't do. He looked into his birth. He learned that Peter Parker was only twenty-two when he died, and was orphaned at the age of three when his parents died in a plane crash. He was taken in by the couple below, his uncle Ben and aunt May. Peter Parker's only family. Which makes them Pete's family. Sort of.

When he looked into the project that created him, he wasn't surprised to learn that it was an attempt to create something like Super-Soldier. However Peter Parker came up with an idea that changed everything after so many failures at using Super-Soldier's blood to pass on his powers to someone else. Use the blood sample to create a clone, but in order to succeed where others failed remove most of the alien DNA in order to prevent a monstrous hybrid. So when he learned of his connection to Super-Soldier Pete considered approaching him when the problem hit him. The problem being that he doesn't look anything like Super-Soldier and has more similarities to Parker.

The explanation was simple. To remove the amount of alien DNA meant removing chunks of Super-Soldier's human DNA. That space had to be filled by something, and Parker was happy to provide his blood. That's why uncle Gen named him Pete, in memory of his "father". Which meant he wasn't really a clone. He was the genetically engineered offspring of a WWII superhuman legend with alien DNA and a young scientist, except that he had flashes of memories from both. Memories of seeing his parent leaving him with his aunt and uncle, of growing up on a farm in a town called Smallville, being bullied for enjoying science, of some woman named Lois. Pete was normally able to block those memories out, mainly by focusing on his own pain.

So where did this leave him? It left him without a real family, relatives who were unaware of their connection, a minor identity crisis, a sense of isolation from people and a inability to healthily process his sense of guilt and despair. So the temptation to just go down and talk to the couple below was overwhelming, with his mind conjuring up the perfect fantasy. Of them accepting him, probably telling Super-Soldier and him becoming some sort of big brother to Pete. Going to a regular school with regular people with regular problems, and finding a way to balance the insanity that is his life. A fantasy of finally belonging somewhere.

For a second, Pete almost did leap off the roof and into their garden.

But then reality hit him. How could he, in good conscience, bring them into his world? Remind them of their grief from when they lost their nephew? And how can he force his own issues onto them, or even Super-Soldier? The WWII legend had enough troubles of his own according to the rumours he's heard. No, it was better if he grew up. If he accepted that he will never be normal. If he accepted that this was really as good as life gets for him and all he can do is just smile and laugh, and hope it just doesn't get worse.

So with one last look at the couple as they entered their house, Spider-Boy pulled out his web gun and shot out a line to a nearby building. As he was pulled up into the air, he pushed down his feeling and began to focus on the fun stuff. Like convincing Dark Claw to come on his show. With luck he might be able to talk him into doing a TV show where they solve crimes together. And after that he has to go on a game show, and he has a few ads to make. Plenty of important things to keep him distracted, no, happy. Plenty of stuff to keep him happy, he told himself. After all, he was a worldwide famous celebrity and superhero, with legions of fans who either want to be him or marry him.

He had a life people would kill for, so what does he have to be sad about?

**Tell me what you think and if there are any spelling mistakes that don't make sense. So I've thought long and hard about the character of Spider-Boy as I wanted to wr****ite something about him, and wondered what story I could tell. While I did think of some, this one shot came about when it occurred to me that Spider-Boy's life is a mess. He's a clone that clearly has ties to Peter Parker and potential Super-Soldier, apparently lost his only legal guardian and parental figure, is a superhero, a celebrity and somehow has a normal civilian life. He's a teenager but is still called a boy meaning he is still considered young, yet when you take into account the time needed for him to develop a uncle-nephew bond with general Ross and have this pre-existing adventures, a lot of stuff must have happened to him within a short amount of time. Throw in a bunch of other stuff and I think you get a rather interesting character.**


End file.
